Remind me, why didn't anyone even think of asking around once the identity of the murderer was known?
In the novel, Hal Heckler (Lindsey's boyfriend's older brother) does make a point of asking passing motorcyclists and truckers to keep an eye out for Mr. Harvey or anyone matching his mannerisms and description. About midway through the book, he does come across someone who claims Harvey killed a friend of his, but due to the nature of the story, the pieces never all quite add up.
The biker said that Harvey killed his mother and that she was the woman he claimed was his fake wife. She was also the only adult Harvey ever killed.
One critic of the movie pointed out this little tidbit: why the hell does a single middle-aged man (complete with paedophile glasses and a dodgy moustache) who makes dollhouses for a living not jump straight to the top of the suspects list?
Remember, the movie takes place during "a time when missing children's faces didn't appear on milk cartons, or be a prominent feature on the evening news. Back then, people didn't think that this sort of thing could happen."
Jeffrey Dahmer. Similar time period of killing; he, too, looked the part of a Serial Killer, yet when the police came to his apartment after his victim ran away, they suspected nothing. Unassuming, white, middle-aged man, respectable, polite — what's there to suspect?
This troper, as a young male in the current age doesn't see how dollhouses are supposed to be creepy in that affect. In fact it sounds like a pretty interesting career. And just speaking it would be a very good career for people also interested in architecture and design. (Harvey in the book is also very much a fan of architecture as well)
To an extent a grown man "playing" with dolls may be considered "creepy" But i don't really see someone making them or having them (or any other mock architecture toys) around isn't really something i'd even be suspicious of someone for. If i were the cops i'd be more suspicious of the blankness of the house then the doll houses.
The movie does have Harvey put on a show of being a nice, normal (if withdrawn) guy, when the police come to question him. When Jack starts to insist at the end that Harvey is the killer, he has already bothered the police with so many leads that they don't take him seriously.
Hi, Ruth! We're just gonna let Susie possess you—she's gonna have sex with her old crush—USING YOUR BODY! Even though she was only fourteen and had just been raped when she was horribly killed, this must be what she wants. Doubles as squick.
At least the movie was a little better with this, making this scene just a simple kiss rather than an in-and-out intercourse...
Susie's icicle comment? Now in the text she says it be the perfect murder weapon. But aren't we supposed to believe Susie is narrating from a time where she had already gone on to big Heaven. If so then she clearly already knew how he would die. So like her regular narration style of getting sidetracked foreshadows the future with Fridge Brilliance
While not exactly illustrated in the books or movie (and more Fridge Tearjerker than Horror), informing Susie’s classmates that she was missing (and had been murdered) would have been something that would have been hard for both the teachers the aforementioned classmates.
